Caribbean coral in serious decline

Coral reefs across the Caribbean have suffered devastating damage over the past 30 years, a team of British scientists has found.

Their study, reported in the journal Science, found that the average amount of hard coral cover on reefs had been reduced by 80 per cent, and that only about 10 per cent of reefs were now covered by coral, compared with 50 per cent three decades ago.

Although the rate of loss had slowed in recent years, significant declines persisted, said Toby Gardner and colleagues from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, who pooled data from 65 studies covering 263 sites across the Caribbean basin.

The scientists said there was no convincing evidence yet that global effects such as climate change were causing the coral decline.

Natural and human-related local factors - such as diseases, storms, over-fishing, and habitat destruction - were more likely suspects.

However, they said that climate change could make the situation worse.

Writing in Science, the researchers said: "Given current predictions of increased human activity in the Caribbean, the growing threat of climate change on coral mortality and reef framework building, and the potential synergy between these threats, the situation for Caribbean coral reefs does not look likely to improve in either the short or the long term."